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C.H. Barnes says (in Shorts Aircraft since 1900) that “like F-AJDB, the Breguet boats [referring to the batch of five S.8/2's ordered from Breguet in1931] were to have Gnome-Rhône Jupiter 9Akx engines, but were to be modified for naval duties; thus they became Rangoons in all but name and are further described [in his book] under that heading; F-AJDB was subsequently converted to a similar standard [to the five S.8/2's] at Le Harve.”

Q. Is the claim that ‘F-AJDB was subsequently converted to a similar standard at Le Harve’ correct ?

A 'class photograph' of 3E1-2, in Gerard Bosquet's French Flying Boats of WW2, shows engines with no cowls and fitted with 4-blade (Breguet 127 ?) propellers. A similar view of 3E1-4, in Lucien Morareau's Les Aeronefs de l'Aviation Maritime, 1910-1942, shows engines with no cowls and fitted with 3-blade propellers. C.H. Barnes (in Shorts Aircraft since 1900) says that the last three aircraft produced by Breguet had full engine cowlings and were fitted with 3-blade variable-pitch propellers.

Q. The photos confirm that 3-blade propellers were fitted to the later aircraft, but why were the propellers changed ?

Q. Were the 4-blade propellers on the earlier aircraft later replaced with 3-blade variable-pitch propellers ?